1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical contact, and more particularly to an electrical connector contact for electrically interconnecting two electrical components such as an integrated circuit (IC) package and a printed circuit board (PCB).
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are two current trends in the connector industry which pose great challenges for manufacturers: the trend toward miniaturization of socket connectors, and the trend toward increased density of arrays of electrical contacts of the socket connectors. In a typical miniaturized socket connector, each contact received in a housing of the connector is short and occupies only a limited space. Thus a spring arm of the contact is too short to provide good resilient characteristics. As a result, engagement between the connector and an associated electrical device may be unreliable.
In order to overcome the above problems, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,203,331 and 6,296,495 provide another kind of electrical connector. Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, the connector comprises a housing 8, and a plurality of electrical contacts 9 received in the housing 8. A plurality of contact-passages 81 is defined in the housing 8, the contact-passages 81 receiving the corresponding contacts 9 therein. Each contact 9 has an inverted “U”-shaped retention portion 91, and a “U”-shaped extending portion 92 extending slantingly down from the retention portion 91. A first mating portion 922 is defined at a bottommost section of the extending portion 92. The first mating portion 922 protrudes out from the housing 8, for engaging with a corresponding contact pad 830 of a PCB 83. A second mating portion 921 is formed at a topmost section of the extending portion 92. The second mating portion 921 protrudes out from the housing 8, for engaging with a corresponding contact pad 820 of an IC package 82. With this structure, the extending portion 92 is relatively long, and gives the contact 9 good resilient characteristics.
However, the elongate extending portion 92 increases a length of an electrical path along an “L”-shaped portion of the contact 9 between the first and second mating portions 922, 921. Thus impedance of the contact 9 is increased. Further, the contacts 9 are densely arrayed in the housing 8. As a result, much heat is generated and concentrated in the connector during operation. The connector and the IC package 82 are liable to malfunction, and may even be damaged.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide an improved electrical contact for a connector which overcomes the above-mentioned problems.